Have You Ever
by LadyCatBailey
Summary: Reply to a challenge from DelKaidin. Kagome has to write an essay for school.


A/N: This is a response to Del Kaidin's challenge "Have You Ever". The rules for it are as follows:

**-**Kagome is assigned to write an essay... Must start with "Have you ever..."

-She can turn it in or not... can be lemon/lime/ or not

-Any pairing or none... can be any rating...

I saw it and I simply had to write it. It was too good a plot for me too pass up, ya know? I hope I don't make you cringe with my writing, Del. LOL Enjoy, minna! ^_^

**Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha. I don't even own this _plot_. I do own the writing itself, and I will be forced to become very violent if anyone steals it. **

_Have you ever lived?_

Kobayashi stared at the open folder that lay on his desk, eyes cast downwards, saying nothing. He inhaled deeply, lifting on hand pressing his fingers to his lips, chewing on the inside of his cheek. He had been a teacher for over twenty-five years, and it was a profession he greatly enjoyed. Sure, teaching teenagers could get on anyone's nerves at times, but he loved it when he was able to inspire his students, to get them to read or write or do _something _at all.

In his years he had came across many interesting essays, some embellished, some complete truth, some that brought tears to his eyes, and yet others that made him laugh so hard he couldn't breath. But…this was one essay he could not put in any category. It seemed to be false, yet the emotions and meanings behind it were so…so honest and forthright, that it stirred within his heart.

He cast his gaze upwards to the calm young woman standing in front of him; her backpack slung over one shoulder, some books in her arms.

"Higurashi-san." Higurashi bowed slightly.

  
"You wanted to see me after class, Kobayashi-sensei?" She gave him a slight smile, her eyes twinkling. Kobayashi nodded his head.

"Yes, Higurashi-san, I did. Its about your…essay." Higurashi's lips twitched as if she was fighting a grin down, and she tilted her head, watching him. 

Kobayashi lifted the folder up, silently reading over the first part of Higurashi's essay.

_Have you ever seen the past? Have you ever held and touched and breathed magic? Have you ever seen death and destruction, pure evil coming at you, and you just _know _that you're going to die? Have you ever been thrown through time, _defied _time, because your soul called out for the only person you will ever love in any lifetime?_

_I have._

_I was fifteen years old, young and foolish; sure I knew more about the world then my mother and grandfather. Sure that there was no such thing as monsters that would crawl out from under your bed and eat you at night, sure that there was no such thing as magic. I was so wrong, so naïve. I thought I understood good and evil, right and wrong-I knew nothing then. Nothing like what I know now._

_I grew up in a Shrine, I listened everyday, every minute it seemed, too the old stories and myths and legends that our culture is made up of, that my Shrine home is based around. When I was little I thought they were wonderful and beautiful, and I longed to fall into the fairytales my Jii-chan weaved for me every night when I went to sleep. But then I grew up, and I laughed at the stories, was so sure of myself that I believed nothing of them. _

_Then, on the morning of my fifteenth birthday, I fell down the hidden well on my Shrine's grounds. I fell through five hundred years, right into the past. I crawled out of that well, and I met my destiny. I freed a hanyou named InuYasha from a miko's enchanted arrow, I had the great Shikon no Tama literally ripped out of my body, and I had everything I thought I knew and understood ripped out from under me._

_I was scared, then, terrified. But somehow…somehow it felt right. More right to me then anything else in the whole world had ever felt in my short life. And it was because of InuYasha-I was so intrigued by him in the beginning, though I guess I still am today. He threatened to kill me, and he was violent and rude and so arrogant that when the old miko Kaede put an enchanted rosary around his neck that allowed me too subdue him I had far more fun saying "Sit, boy" then any person should ever be allowed too._

"It's a very…interesting, essay, Higurashi-san. But the assignment was to write something that had happened too you. Embellishing is allowed, but I did not mean for you to put yourself in a legend." Higurashi smiled at him then, tilting her head back and letting out a bright, tinkling laugh.

"But, Kobayashi-sensei, it _is _the truth. I couldn't make anything like that up, I'm not a story teller." Kobayashi blinked at the young woman in front of him. 

Then I made the biggest oops in the history of the world-I shot an arrow to kill a youkai and save a little a boy and a village, and when that arrow hit it shatter the Shikon no Tama into pieces. Small pieces. Shards. Shards that was now my duty to find-as I am the reincarnation of the great miko Kikyou. I am now the guardian of the Tama. 

_Have you ever had such a responsibility put on your shoulders?_

_I have. I still do._

_InuYasha and I began a long search for the Shards, so we could put the Jewel back together. Once it was finished, InuYasha wanted to become a full youkai. At first, I thought it was because he wanted more power, more strength. But then…then I found that wasn't the reason at all. InuYasha wanted a place. A home. A life. He wanted to be accepted._

_It still breaks my heart when I look back in my memories and see him as he was then, his beautiful golden eyes guarded, haunted by a painful past. He had never been accepted, he was not a human, nor was he a youkai. He was a hanyou, a half-breed, and the world thought him dirty and filthy for it. The youkai's thought he was weak, pitiful. The human's thought he was evil and of dirty blood._

_Have you ever seen a truth no one else would? I do every time I look at my beloved InuYasha._

_I know now he is nothing of that. He is a great warrior, an honorable warrior. He upholds the noble blood his youkai-lord father more then any other person, full or half or anything else, could ever hope to do. He is sensitive behind his masks. He feels with his whole heart. He is afraid of being hurt, of being rejected. _

_And through seeing and learning that, I fell in love with him-the real him, all of them. Not parts of him or pieces, not for what he could have been, as the miko Kikyou had loved him for, but everything he is and can be. I will always love him._

"I know the legend of the Shikon no Tama, Higurashi-san. Are you trying to tell me that _you _are the great miko from the future?"

"I'm not a great miko. I'm not even that good of a miko, my aim still isn't as good as I'd like it too be…" Higurashi sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "But, yes, I am the miko from the future."

Kobayashi stared in shock at the girl.

And she giggled.

_Have you ever seen death? _

_We saved a little kitsune child from some evil, Shard holding youkai brothers. His name was Shippou, and oh, he was such a precocious little scamp. He began to travel with us, his parents were killed, and he had no one to go too. I became his mother, and he my darling little boy. He loved, and still does, to annoy InuYasha._

_That subduing spell came in very handy during those moments._

_But that wasn't the only additions to our little group. No, there came more. A hentai hoshi by the name of Miroku-he carried a generational curse given to his grandfather by the evil demon Naraku. In time, if Naraku was not killed, Miroku would be sucked into the air-rip in his hand, just has his grandfather and father had been. _

_And so, he was forever groping pretty women and asking them to bear his child._

_Lastly, we have Sango, and her companion Kirara. Naraku killed Sango's village and family, and she swore vengeance. And so she began to travel with us._

_Have you ever had your soul ripped out of your body? It is a painful, all encompassing pain, thing to have done. I know. _

_Problems followed us everywhere we went. The largest, to my thoughts, being Kikyou. Kikyou who had died believing InuYasha betrayed her. Kikyou who was better then me, smarter then me, stronger then me, prettier then me. Kikyou who held InuYasha's heart where I did not._

_Kikyou who was brought back to life._

_You cannot imagine the stabbing pain I felt in my heart, my _soul _when InuYasha would go to Kikyou. It hurt me, Gods, it hurt so badly, to see the two of them-InuYasha and the clay body that held only the bitterness and hatred and a shadow of Kikyou. I watched, nearly dieing inside, as Kikyou tried to drag InuYasha into hell with her._

_Even after she found out the truth-that Naraku had tricked she and InuYasha. That it was Naraku that killed her. That it was Naraku she should be after. And she still tried too kill InuYasha._

_And yet, every time her Soul-Stealers would come calling for him, he would run too her out of a twisted sense of guilt and love. It hurt me. It still hurts to think about it. Sango, who is still today my dearest friend, my dearest sister, would become fully enraged at InuYasha and not speak to him for days at a time after he would see her._

_  
She would just sit and glower at him from across the campfire, murder in her eyes. She never really called Kikyou by her name-it was always "The Corpse" or "The Evil Bitch" or "My Target". She would become rather scary in those times, and I would forever tell her not to say such things about Kikyou. InuYasha loved Kikyou, and I loved InuYasha, and it would hurt him if he heard her saying those things about Kikyou. And above all I never wanted InuYasha to hurt._

_But she never stopped, and late at night when I was depressed and crying and InuYasha was off to see his love Sango would sit with me and hold me, and together we'd be plot various ways to kill her. I never understood until then exactly _how _dangerous Sango could be. I kept her away from pitchforks and hoes, after that._

"You…you must be kidding." Higurashi smiled blandly at him.

"No, Kobayashi-sensei, I am not kidding. Though its up too you if you want to believe it or not." Higurashi shrugged small shoulders.

Have you ever watched your friends, your love, nearly die? Have you ever fought not just for your life, but also for the life of so many others, for the world, against the greatest evil ever known?

_I did._

_In time, we gathered all the Shards we could. What we did not have, Naraku had. And then the time came, the time that I had feared since the beginning-it was time for the largest battle we would ever have. We had to face Naraku and his offspring, we had to kill him, to make sure he would not take the Jewel and use it for his evil whims. _

_I was so scared. The night before the battle we camped in the forest, and all I could do was cling to InuYasha. He held me, stroked my hair, and rocked me back and forth. In the years since our quest had started, we had became very close. I knew he cared for me, and he knew I loved him. But there was so much between us that we could not overcome at that point._

_But that night, none of it mattered too us. Sango and Miroku were off by themselves, Kirara kept watch over a fitfully sleeping Shippou, and InuYasha made me promise, that no matter what happened, that I would live. I would live and I would be happy and that I would have beautiful children._

_  
Even if he died._

_I became inconsolable at his words, and I sobbed in his fire-rat haori, holding him as tightly as I could. I could not let my InuYasha die; I simply couldn't live a life without him in it. It was unthinkable for me. _

_And then, among my tears and sobs, and his fears and shaking hands, he lifted my head up and he kissed me. It was my first kiss, and it wasn't a normal first kiss. It wasn't shy and hesitant…this was hard and fueled by fear. It was what we both needed._

_That night, InuYasha took me into the forest, and we forgot the boundaries between us. He made me his mate, his only one. He still had promises to Kikyou, and I understood that. We might both die the next day, and I understood that also._

_But I wanted it, wanted it so much that none of it mattered._

_I wished that dawn would not come, but it did. And as soon as the sun began to rise we did also, and InuYasha helped me dress, and held me tightly, and swore that no matter what he would always protect me, even if he had to die to do it. _

_We were somber and silent when we went back to our camp. Sango looked at me, and I at her, and though I felt a tear fall down my face, and one down hers, she pulled me into a hug, and then smiled at me. We would be brave. We would be strong. We would fight._

_And we would damn well win._

_Have you ever watched your love die?_

_The battle was fierce. We were joined by InuYasha's full-youkai half-brother Sesshomaru, and by a youkai wolf-prince named Kouga and his pack. I watched, in horror and anger and utter fear, as the battle raged. Wolf's lay dead all around us, Sango lay in the blood and mud and held a nearly dead Miroku to her chest, sobbing hysterically and begging him not die. Shippou hid in the bushes, hands over his face, muttering prayers. Kouga lie dead, his body almost completely ripped in half._

_And then InuYasha rushed forward, his great sword Tetsusiaga glowing red, brandished before him as he let out a long battle cry. His brought the sword down, nearly killing Naraku. But Naraku _did _kill him, and I watched in horror as the sword Naraku wielded went straight through InuYasha's throat. He seemed to fall too the ground in slow motion, and before he died his eyes turned to me, met mine._

_And then he shuddered, blood rolling out of his mouth. He died._

_I was numb. Numb with anger. Numb with shock. Numb with a sorrow so deep I cannot describe it too you._

_Have you ever killed?_

_I took out an arrow, and I aimed it for the half-dead monster that had killed InuYasha. And I put every ounce of spiritual power I had into it-and then I let it fly just before my vision blurred from tears. It hit him in the head, right between his eyes. He let out an inhuman shriek, and smoke and jaki swirled around him, and then he exploded, the tainted Jewel Shards he had held tinkling too the ground._

_I didn't care though. All I could do was stumble too InuYasha's body, the Tetsusiaga still in his limp hand. I fell on him, sobbing, clutching his robes, begging him to breath. His body was still warm, but there was no breath, no heartbeat. I began too wail, and to curse the Gods that had taken him from me._

_"You are a pathetic miko, falling in love with a hanyou." I looked up, into Sesshomaru's face. He hated InuYasha. He tried to kill InuYasha every chance he got. He would probably kill me for mating InuYasha, for dirtying the great inu-blood even more._

_But he didn't. He pulled out Tensagia, brother sword to Tetsusiaga, and he swung it over InuYasha's body. I watched, hope stirring in my chest, as the wounds that covered InuYasha's body closed, the blood disappeared, and with a strangled breath, InuYasha jerked forward, his eyes shutting and then opening._

_Have you ever been given the greatest gift in the world?_

_Sesshomaru went on to save Miroku, Kouga, and Kouga's fallen pack members. I asked him why, once, and he just gave me a cold, evil look, and replied, "This Sesshomaru has no reason to answer to a pathetic human girl like _you_." I translated it out too-My human child Rin has made me soft, but I will never admit it, now back away before I use my poison claws on you, filthy human bitch._

_InuYasha and I protect the Jewel together now, along with Sango in Miroku. We live in Kaede's village-when I'm not in my time, that is, so I can take tests and go to school and do my numerous amounts of homework. Miroku and Sango are expecting their first child within three months, Shippou calls me mama, and InuYasha and I…well, we're happy._

_Kikyou was laid to rest, at last. Which left InuYasha and I to be together. Forever. _

_We still fight. He always going to be arrogant and rude and make me want to slam his head through a wall. But I love him. And he loves me. And that's enough. When I finish school, we're going to wish Midoriko-sama free from the Jewel, and I'll remain in the past with InuYasha._

_I think having a few dog-eared children would be nice._

_Have you ever truly lived?_

_I live every day now. And maybe the fairytale isn't perfect, but it's as close as it will ever get. And I wouldn't want it any other way._

_Have you ever…?_

"Damnit, bitch, where the hell are you!?" Kobayashi turned his head to watch a white haired young man dressed in red robes storm into his classroom, glowering at Higurashi.

"InuYasha! I'm busy!" Higurashi hissed, glaring at the strange young man.

"You-You can go now, Higurashi-san." Kobayashi said faintly. Higurashi beamed at him and bowed.

"Thank you, Kobayashi-sensei." That was it all it took, the young man grabbed Higurashi by the arm, picked her up, and walked out.

But not before Kobayashi saw two dog ears twitching on top of his head.

A/N2: Sooooo, how did you like it? I liked it a lot. It was fun. Teehee! Hope you all enjoy it, and please leave me a review….I'll give you cookies! ^_^


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